Frey burst from the mouth of the fissure onto the ledge beside the chasm. On the other side of the gap, he saw Malvery, holding up his lantern, shotgun in one hand and a look of alarm and surprise on his face.
The creature howled as it reached for him, running full pelt in pursuit. Frey gave everything he had to put himself beyond it. A heavy claw glanced off his back, pushing him forward, off balance.
The momentum was too great to stop now. Stumbling, skipping, he leaped across the chasm.
He couldn’t have made the jump even on his best day.
For a heartbeat, he was airborne, gaping emptiness below him, the dread of death in his gut. His arms and legs flailed wildly in the air. He screamed, high and raw and despairing.
And then his hands closed on one of the ropes that spanned the chasm. His flight arrested, his legs whiplashed out beneath him and his grip came loose. He fell, but instinct made him reach out, and the lower rope slammed into his chest and armpits and somehow, somehow he held on to it, clinging to that last slender thread that kept him from extinction.
Something flying through the air towards him. Something huge. He pulled his feet out of the way just in time to avoid the daemon’s reaching hand, and it plummeted past him with a shriek, tumbling into the chasm where it was swallowed up in the dark.
That shriek went on for a very long time before it stopped.
‘Cap’n! Cap’n, take my hand!’ Malvery was reaching across the chasm towards him, but he was too far away to be of use. Frey had the rope under his armpits but he wasn’t strong enough to pull himself up and the damn thing kept moving. He swung his leg up to hook his boot heel over the rope. On the third try he made it. He tried to get himself upright but balance was impossible. He began to panic.
‘Cap’n! Hang off it and crawl towards me!’
Malvery’s directions were less than clear, but Frey got the gist. He hooked his other foot over the rope. His hands were almost too painful to hold it, but he gritted his teeth and made them grip.
Laboriously, inch by inch, he crawled towards Malvery, moving hand over hand and sliding his crossed legs up behind him. The doc reached down and he grabbed on, adding Malvery’s not inconsiderable strength to his own. He scrabbled and struggled and found himself at last with solid ground beneath him, where he lay collapsed for a while, joyous with the various hurts of being alive.
Malvery sat next to him, panting. ‘That was, er, quite a scream you gave, Cap’n,’ he said. ‘Almost girly, you might say.’
Frey’s cheek was pressed to the stone floor and his eyes were closed. ‘Not a word to the crew, Doc,’ he said out of the side of his mouth.
‘Right-o,’ said Malvery, and patted him heavily on the back.
Jez. Spit and blood, Jez. Please be alright. Please.
Crake dug frantically into the rubble pile, pulling out rocks and tossing them aside. Pinn, Silo and Pelaru worked with him to uncover the small figure beneath. She looked less than fearsome now. Covered in dust, her overalls torn in several places, she seemed terribly fragile.
I’ve killed her. Oh, no, I’ve killed her.
He’d been so eager for the opportunity to try out his new techniques. He hadn’t thought how it might affect Jez. Clumsily sweeping the frequencies like that, he was just as liable to hit her as his target. Caught up by pride in his new machine, keen to show it off, he’d messed everything up. And now she might be dead. Really dead.
Just like what happened with Bess.
He plucked out stones, threw them away and went back for more. He’d already lost one person close to him through meddling with forces beyond his control. He couldn’t bear to lose another.
They pulled her out and laid her on the floor. She looked wan in the lantern light, but then she’d always been pale. There were cuts and scratches, but they didn’t bleed; they just lay open and red.
‘Is she breathing?’ he asked frantically.
Pinn gave him a look. ‘She wasn’t breathing before, thick-arse.’
Crake was so distressed that the absurdity of Pinn mocking his intelligence passed him by. He crouched down next to her, and was about to listen for a heartbeat before he remembered that she didn’t have one.
‘She’s already dead! How do we know if she’s alright?’ he asked helplessly.
‘Any bones broke?’ said Silo.
Crake hesitated to touch her; it felt improper. Pinn had no such compunctions, and began mauling her all over until Pelaru pulled him away.
‘Have some respect,’ the Thacian told him harshly.
Pinn shook him off. ‘Last I checked, you weren’t shit to me, mate,’ he snarled. ‘Put your hands on me again, I’ll kick your face off.’
‘This isn’t the time!’ Crake snapped. Pinn reluctantly subsided before Pelaru’s infuriating calm.
‘She always went like this after she flipped, yuh?’ said Silo. ‘Out for a while. Might be she’ll be alright. Just needs time.’
Pelaru knelt down next to her and laid his hand gently on her forehead. He seemed to be listening. After a moment, he drew back, with a deep breath of what might have been relief.
‘She’s alive,’ he said. ‘Or as much as she ever was. She’ll recover.’
‘Are you sure?’ Crake asked. ‘How do you know?’
‘I knew Osger for a very long time,’ he said. ‘I know the signs.’
Relief flooded through Crake. There was such certainty in the Thacian’s voice. Crake didn’t question his assurances. He wanted to believe, so he did.
Ashua came hurrying through the doorway to the hall, holding up a lantern. Her face was alight with amazed happiness.
‘The Cap’n’s okay!’ she said.
‘What about the daemon?’ Crake asked.
‘He killed it!’
Pinn spluttered. ‘He bloody killed it?’
‘That was pretty much my reaction. How’s Jez?’
‘Hard to tell,’ said Silo. He thumbed at Pelaru. ‘This feller says she’ll be alright.’
‘Good, good,’ said Ashua absently. She wasn’t all that bothered. She hadn’t been with Jez as long as the rest of them. The others recalled with fondness the Jez of earlier days, before she became frightening. Ashua had never really known those times.
Pelaru picked up Jez, hoisted her over his shoulders, and picked up his pack with his free hand. ‘I’ll take care of her,’ he said gravely.
No one argued. ‘Cap’n says we’re to grab what we can and get gone,’ Ashua told them.
The others headed off to fill their empty backpacks with treasures. Crake had no interest in that. He just wanted out of this place. When Pelaru left to carry Jez back to Frey, Crake went with him to carry the lantern.
They followed the corridor past the ruined bodies of the expedition members, and finally came to Osger’s body. The two halves were scattered now. Pelaru looked at the horrifying corpse for a long moment. Then he stepped over it and walked on.
When they reached the chasm, they found Frey and Malvery on the other side, swigging from a bottle that the doctor had brought along ‘just in case’. Frey looked shaken up, but the news that Jez would survive cheered him.
After some deliberation about how they were going to get Jez across, Pelaru had them tie Jez to him with a pair of belts, and he crossed the rope bridge while bearing her on his back. Then he came back for his pack. The man seemed to have a gymnast’s strength and balance: the rope bridge bothered him not at all, nor did he show any strain from carrying Jez. Crake noticed as he picked up his pack that there was something heavy in it, and he thought then of the casket that he’d seen the whispermonger examining.
I’ll have a word with him about that once we’re out of here, he thought.
The others arrived, bearing loot, and crossed the chasm with only minimal complaining from Pinn. Frey told his story about the daemon as they sorted themselves out. Frey’s version cast him as heroic. Malvery told them how he’d screamed like a girl.